1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 - Living in the Light of Christ's Return

 AUDIO

I.      Introduction

The Thessalonians are doing really well in so many areas of their lives.

But they hadn't had a picture-perfect start to the Christian life.

The apostolic team had needed to move on quickly before their task of adequately instructing and establishing the new church was properly finished in order to protect the new believers from any further pressure because fierce persecution had broken out at Thessalonica.

This letter is trying to remedy that problem.

The things the apostolic team have had to address for them, in terms of answering their questions, have mainly related to the Lord's Return ... what we call the Second Coming.

The Thessalonians had received incomplete teaching before the team had needed to leave rapidly for the new church's future safety, so they'd learned that the Lord Jesus was coming back but their questions related firstly to what to make of the believers who had already died before the Lord returned ... and last time the apostolic team addressed the question as to whether thosew deceased believers had somehow missed the bus.

Now in the following passage at the start of chapter five the apostolic team needs to address the question: 'Well if Jesus is coming back then, it's been a while so where IS He?!'

'Could you please supply some times and some dates, so that we can be sure to be ready?'

Oh, some people do LOVE ‘mysteries’ don’t they?

I mean … offering ‘insights’ and ‘answers’ to things God hasn’t given us plainly to understand.

There are people – possibly they want to feel more ‘special’ than they do naturally – who DELIGHT in what you might call ‘esoteric knowledge’ … knowing things other people don’t know and they absolutely LOVE letting little nuggets of that assumed knowledge drop as if to boost themselves up.

Now … you can see already can’t you that there are likely to be issues, then, with all this.

It’s a phenomenon known to psychology as esotericism or esoterism.

So what the apostles are keen to remind these Thessalonians of so that they don’t get side-tracked and distracted from the things that really matter is that this fascination with hidden things is just futile.

As for times and dates of the Lord’s Return ... it’ll be a surprise.

II.     It's going to be a surprise, vv. 1-3

The phrase at the start of v. 1 shows us there’s now been a change of subject.

We’ve moved on to dealing with times and with seasons, and that subject is done and dealt with pretty swiftly.

a)   Times and dates

"Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you”

Dates and times - days and seasons – this phrase refers to phases on a timeline.

So we read in Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens”

It seems likely that a few shaken folk at Thessalonica might have been slipping into thinking that perhaps Jesus wasn’t coming back and so were seeking to know the specifics … which would have been a distraction from daily faithfully living for Jesus.

The apostles are having no truck with it!

We don’t even need to write to you about it, they say, because as you well know it’ll be a surprise … like an unexpected thief in the night.

Now, this problem had arisen from the Lord’s own time onwards.

The Olivet Discourse in Mark 13:4 was initiated by the question “‘Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?’”

Similarly, Acts begins with the question (Acts 1:6-7) “Then they gathered round him and asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’

⁷ He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

 ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’

The Lord reconciles the enquiry in Mark 13 in this way:

“Be on guard! Be alert!

You do not know when that time will come. 

³⁴ It’s like a man going away: he leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵ ‘Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or at dawn. 

³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 

³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: “Watch!”’

 

The apostles’ aim is clearly though, in all this talk of times and seasons, to re-focus the Thessalonians’ question the way the Lord did with His disciples on the exceptional future single event which really matters: the Day of the Lord and THAT is going to come with all the forewarning of a thief in the night, and living always in readiness and preparedness for that.

b)   Like a thief in the night

 

 v.2 “for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

Two things here in particular

i) The Day of the Lord

The day of the Lord is the period of time in the future when the Lord will intervene in the events of this earth to consummate his redemption and his judgment.

You can read about it in numerous places in Scripture, but try Isaiah 2:11-12; 13:6-13; Ezekiel 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:32; 3:18; Amos 5:18-20; Obadiah 15-17; Zephaniah 1:7-18; 2:2-3; Zechariah 14:1, 13, 20-21; Malachi 4:1, 5; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 5:5; 2 Corinthians 1:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; and 2 Peter 3:10 for example.

It's a BIG thing … unlike all this speculating about times and seasons the Thessalonians were getting distracted by.

Biblically, it includes both blessings and curses, though the latter is emphasized here.

But it will come SUDDENLY.

 

ii) Like a thief in the night

Jesus used a thief coming at night as an illustration of the unexpected and hostile nature of the coming of God’s judgment in the future.

This is repeated in various ways in v. 4; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 3:3; 16:15

iii) Like the sudden onset of birth-pains

Childbirth in the first century was a risky business and the large number of women who died in childbirth lowered the average life expectancy of women down into their twenties or thirties.

So the first onset of a woman’s labour pains might therefore easily be the harbinger of death.

But this feature actually follows on from something else we need to notice here, as v. 3 tells us that the coming of this Day of the Lord will make monkeys of the ‘relax, it won’t happen, everything’s fine’ brigade.

c)    Soothings-sayers will be exposed

Listen to this and think about what’s going on here …

v. 3 While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety’,

destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman,

and they will not escape.”

What are the apostolic team GETTING at here?

Well, it looks at first as if Paul & co are tapping in to the sort of language we hear from the Old Testament prophets in (for example) Jeremiah 6:14 or Ezekiel 13:10.

Ezekiel 13 is all about the responsibility God placed on Ezekiel to condemn the wayward prophets of Israel.

Ezekiel 13:10-11 runs: “‘“Because they lead my people astray, saying, ‘Peace’, when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, ¹¹ therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall.”

Ezekiel 13:15-16 says:

“I will pour out my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, ‘The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it, ¹⁶ those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

 

Now, in more recent years, there has arisen the suggestion that the background to what Paul & co are saying is not in the Old Testament but in the slogan ‘peace and security’ that was used in support of Roman power and protection … a source of ‘security’ towards which Paul is of course, by nature, quite skeptical!

It has to be said that we haven’t actually got any archaeology for that precise slogan, and the idea hasn’t been universally accepted by scholars, but given the culture in Thessalonica and given the background of these people and the context of having lost loved ones and been shaken by it, it seems well within the bounds of possibility to me that this was all about not running off to the sooth-sayer.

But we can’t put it (yet) more strongly than that.

Th day of the Lord is coming (no peace where it doesn’t exist) and it’s going to come upon people unexpectedly so far as times and specific dates are concerned.

So, it is going to be a surprise, but you are not going to be surprised – that is ‘caught out’ -  by it.

And that’s for a very good reason …

III.    But you are not going to be 'surprised', vv. 4-5

 

So what’s happening now, to be clear, is that Paul & co are now rapidly switching from a purely temporal view of ‘days’ and ‘nights’ to an ethical one of being ‘day’ or ‘night’ people.

And here’s the reason: “The believers live on a different plane of existence than the people of the world” says Gary Shogren.

 

a) You’re NOT in the dark

v. 4 "But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.”

The Thessalonians are walking in the light of Gospel understanding.

The light metaphor here has its Biblical sense of entry into the realm of salvation: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:2)

So the apostles’ Gospel work is to carry ‘a light for the Nations’.

Paul describes to King Agrippa in Acts 26:17-18 how the Lord had told him at his conversion on the Damascus Road: “I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them ¹⁸ to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”

They don’t need to be written to about times and seasons, nor about the facts of the faith concerning preparedness for the Lord’s return.

The Thessalonians understand this.

They are (largely, it appears) the gentiles who have been brought out of Gentile darkness into the light of the Messiah.

They know that they need to live now by grace through faith alone and to do so everyday so that they are ready (like the ten wise virgins in the Lord’s parable) for the bridegroom’s sudden return even if it happens at midnight.

Now, at this point, Paul is still dealing with ideas but he is about to move off into the ethics of light and dark people, because what follows from all this is that …

b) You are by nature and ethics daylight people

 v. 5a “You are all children of the light and children of the day.”

The Thessalonians are not night people, but day people … and that’s where their security lies.

This is where the apostles clearly transition to an ethical statement about two kinds of people … one safe and one not … those associated with night and darkness and then those associated with the day and with light.

What we’ve got here is classic dualistic imagery.

Throughout the Old Testament, night and darkness are used as metaphors of hidden-ness (Job 12:22, 29:3), ignorance and evil (Psalm 139:11-12), sin (Isaiah 5:20) and judgement (Amos 5:18)
And then light is related to revelation (Daniel 2:22) wisdom (Ecclesiastes 2:13) and salvation (Psalm 18:28).

As the Second Temple period unfolds in Judaism we see a more polarised concept of ‘light’ and ‘dark’ people emerge … you’re on the side of the light or the darkness.

Paul, too, embraces that in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.

For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?

Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 

¹⁵ What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?

Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?

For we are the temple of the living God.”

You see, Paul is establishing the Thessalonians IDENTITY … but he’s doing that to influence their activity.

c) We BELONG to the illuminated zone

v. 5b  “We do not belong to the night or to the darkness."

Your identity, he writes, is to ensure that you live in the light and that’s a matter of living NOT in a strange place but living in your own native territory.

This discussion started with curiosity and speculation about the timing of the Lord’s return, but speculating about these matters is not a particularly spiritually fruitful endeavour.

Gupta: “Paul’s concern is with godly behaviour. For the Thessalonians, Paul desires for them to be prepared, to know what really matters, and to focus less on being ‘in the know’ and more on being ‘in the right’ in their behaviour”

So in vv. 6-8 the apostles are keen to move the focus forward …

IV.     Here's how to live your life in the light, BECAUSE He's coming  back, vv. 6-8

The emphasis here now progresses to disciplined living.

Paul has spoken the truth about the identity of believers in vv. 4-5 and now he moves on to the exhortations to live a particular  sort of life as a result of this.

The total picture portrays the kind of people (soldiers) who were recognised in society as being both disciplined and properly prepared.

v. 6 "So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.”

Paul is not BY ANY MEANS unwilling to point to the lives lived by the people walking in darkness to contrast that with the way these people of the light should be living.

This keeps a clear ethical distinction between what Christian and non-Christian lifestyles should be like and it is not tolerant or inclusive to do otherwise it is compromised.

We need to see that.

v. 7 “For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.”

Night is as night does, says Paul …

v. 8a “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober”

That verb translated ‘be sober’ occurs in vv. 6 & 8 and is (Gk.)  νήφω – to exercise self-discipline or self-control.

We need as people of the light to do THIS, says the apostolic team …

But then, before any misplaced pride or sense of personal moral superiority has any chance to spring up, the apostolic team go straight on to spelling out what being self-disciplined  depends on and entails … and it isn’t anything we can claim any personal credit for, but is all supplied by our Heavenly Quartermaster.

v. 8b “putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet."

The armour the Thessalonian believers wear consists of

I)                  Loyalty

II)               Love, and

III)             Hope

That triad of virtues first appeared in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, and now as the letter is moving towards a close, the team returns to these attitudinal and behavioural distinctives that ALREADY characterise the Thessalonians.

The breastplate is an allusion to Isaiah 59:15-17 where

“The Lord looked and was displeased
    that there was no justice.
¹⁶ He saw that there was no one,
    he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm achieved salvation for him,
    and his own righteousness sustained him.
¹⁷ He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
    and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
    and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.”

And then He goes out and executes judgement in the Day of the Lord.

The key to interpreting the genitives ‘breastplate of righteousnsess’ etc. is to be found in the LXX … where the Lord puts on ‘righteousness as His breastplate’.

So Paul is saying here the Christian’s breastplate CONSISTS of faith and love, while the hope of salvation is LIKE a helmet.

These are 'epexegetical genitives' which explain what the breast plate and the helmet metaphors refer to.

V.      Here's your motivation to be doing just that, vv. 9-10

 

v. 9 "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath

 

but to receive salvation

 

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

He died for us so that,

 

whether we are awake or asleep,

 

we may live together with him."

 

a) Salvation

 

c)     Atonement

 

d)     Life with Him whatever happens

Whether we are still living, or whether we have died before the Lord’s return, the fact is that we shall live together with Him.

Christian motivation is almost never about Law but arises from the inspiring consequences of the glorious Gospel of God’s GRACE.

VI.    Conclusion, v. 11

Here's what to do with that knowledge - and it emphasise the 'one another'-ness of the Christian life ... did you notice?

 

v. 11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

A.       Encourage one another

The verb here is παρακαλέω … encourage, exhort, or possibly even comfort someone in profound emotional distress.

Paul also directs these Thessalonian believers to use this truth to build up or to edify one another.

B.       Build one another up

Gk. οἰκοδομέω means to actively promote the growth and strength of one’s fellow Christians.

Whether we’ve had this or not, we’ve certainly  NEEDED this in a pandemic.

Gary Shogren has something to say here which is incredibly profound:

“A proper use of eschatological truth is to benefit and enhance the spiritual life of other Christians.”

Encouragement and edification like this are great ways to express the familial love the apostolic team enjoin in 1 Thessalonians 4:9 … “Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you,

for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.”

When you think of a lack of love, you shouldn’t think simply of beastliness being shown to one another.

I mean, the person who gets carried away with speculation about the last things and the person who falls into panics is likely to be distracted from loving others as they should.

If they would return to the Biblical truth that the time of the end cannot be calculated, they could enjoy again and spread around again what 2 Thessalonians 2:16 describes as the ‘eternal encouragement and good hope’ of the Gospel.

In this first letter to the Thessalonians that is precisely what they are doing, says Paul.

By 2 Thessalonians, they may not have picked up on what the first letter was teaching them and accordingly have slipped away, needing bringing back … so that encouragement in what is good needed to become correction.

No doubt there's a fresh principle to be learned from that too.